Once upon a time there was this way cool Countach …
It was a lazy Saturday in the early 1980’s. My wife and I took a drive to Moss Landing, a quaint little community along California Coast Highway 1, between Santa Cruz and Monterey. We enjoyed the antique shops there and, in particular, browsing in Potter Palmer’s compact store filled with all manner of very old, very pricey jewelry, and a few starter pieces for the likes of young, impoverished couples like us. Potter was a friendly guy and wonderful salesman. He made shopping fun by sizing up his customers and putting on his counter what he thought might be most tempting. Then he’d begin to gently probe to see how far he could bump us up in price, from an inexpensive starter trinket to something much, much nicer — the kind of somethings he kept out of sight in his back room, until the time was right. As Potter worked his magic, he might make three or four trips into the back, each time returning with better pieces than before. We liked to play the game, but were definitely limited to the “cheap trinket” category.
On this day we were driving our fire-breathing, 48-horsepower, 1978 Volkswagen Dasher diesel station wagon. As we came into town I parked behind this stunning Lambo, the likes of which I’d never seen on the road, not even in car rich Silicon Valley. My wife and I made our usual visit to Potter’s store, and as we were leaving he saw me eying the Lambo, which I did not know was his. “Would you like to sit in it,” he asked? What a silly question. Of course I would. So Potter walked over and opened the scissor door. I don’t remember that we bought anything that day, but it was a memorable visit. After that, we always stopped in to say hello when on the way past, and that always led to our browsing while Potter played the jewelry game with us or other customers. He passed away years ago and though his family maintained the store for a long time after, we never heard what happened to the Countach. I don’t know what happened to me, either. As the photo below shows, I used to be much thinner and younger.
